Return to Crusade
by Sarge11
Summary: Uhoh. Ratchet, Clank, and Sarge11 are being sent back to Crusade to claim it for themselves. As if going back there wasn't bad enough, Ratchet's also having a little girl trouble. Please review. Finished. Hooraah!
1. Chapter 1: Foolin' Around

**Return to Crusade**

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer:**I own nothing, just the references to my prelude.

**I bet you thought I was finished with this Crusade stuff didn't you? Wrong as you can see. Hahahahahahahahahahaha! I will be making a return, but I don't know. If you don't like me then just tell me in the reviews and I'll kill myself off. Just so you know, Sarge11 is now a Captain, but his name is still Sarge11. I don't know, the name just stuck.**

_**Chapter 1: Foolin' Around**_

It has been a month since Ratchet, Clank, the Galactic President, and Sarge11 escaped from the mud ball planet of Crusade. The galaxy is in a state of civil war. The Tyhrranoids have amassed a large enough resistance movement to start another war. In the spots where my stories usually begin, the Republic had recently won a great victory over the Tyhrranoids and are celebrating at a local cantina on Metropolis.

"Hey Cap'n, where'd you pick that up?" Ratchet asked gesturing at the human woman in scanty clothing Sarge11 was carrying in his arms.

He grinned and said, "Got er' backstage! It's awesome! Veterans like us can get back there for free!" He walked over to Ratchet and sat the girl down next to Sasha. "Sasha, Ratchet, this is Amy."

"Tootles y'all," she said in a very southern accent.

Sasha piped up. "That is it! Who bringses a strippers to a funeral?"

He leaned close to Ratchet and whispered in his ear, "Watch out, she's getting that look in her eye she gave me that night on Batalia when **it **happened. Believe me, you don't want her father to find out."

Ratchet shuddered and said, "Thanks for the tip. I definitely don't want to deal with that." Now he turned to Sasha and said, "Hey, Sash, it looks like you had a rough day maybe you should go to bed."

She just looked at him with a neutral expression and glazed eyes… and threw herself on Ratchet.

"O.K. I guess you are pretty tired. Time for bed," Ratchet said nervously.

Once they left, Sarge11 said to his new girlfriend, "What he doesn't know is that this is exactly what happened on Batalia." He sat back in his chair with a smirk on his face.

_(Five hours later)_

A shaky Ratchet came back and found Sarge11 and Amy still sitting at the table.

Sarge11 said to Amy, "Watch this." He tapped Ratchet really hard on the shoulder and yelled almost in his ear, "Hey, what happened to you!"

Ratchet nearly jumped through the ceiling and shouted, "IT WASN'T ME!" That little outburst was all it took for the Captain and Amy to see that his teeth, specifically where fangs would be were a bit longer than normal.

Sarge11 clapped once, and Amy covered her mouth with her hand.

"So that's why it took so long! What happened?" Sarge11 asked.

"Oh mah goodness." Amy said.

_(The next morning)_

Ratchet awoke to the sound of a trumpet. His eyes flew open and he rolled out of his bed to land on something cold, hard, metal, and painful. The sound of gears churning met Ratchet's ears.

Clank's muffled voice came up. "You are on top of me."

"Oh, sorry," Ratchet replied.

When Ratchet got up, he was stilla little shaky about what had happened the night before.

Unfortunatly for Ratchet,Clank noticed. "Ratchet, why are you so fidgety? And you had better tell the the truth, because I have a built in lie detector."

Ratchet groaned, knowing that Clank woud notleave him aloneuntil he told him everything.

..."And that's what happened," Ratchet finished.

Clank tried to scratch his chin, only to find he didn't have one. "It seems you are racked with guilt."

"You think!"Ratchet yelled.

"The only thing to do is tell the President-"

"NO!"Ratchet cut in. "He can't learn about what happened! It'll ruin me!"

Clank, rolled his eyes. "You are starting to sound like Captain Quark."

"Forget it, let's just go see what all the commotion is all about."

_(In the Briefing Room)_

"People! People! Settle down!"Sasha shouted at the group of Rangers and officers in front of her.

Ratchet saw the Captain and sat down next to him.

Ratchet leaned over and whispered, "Do you have any idea what this is about?"

"Not a clue." Sarge11 said with wide eyes. "I would have thought you would know."

Sasha cleared her throat...

_She doesn't look like she remembers anything about last night. Maybe this won't be so bad._

His hopes were shattered when he heard Sasha say, "Ratchet, Clank, and Captain Sarge11 are going back to Crusade to take it for ourselves."

**I f you're reading this there is something you must know... C'mon, lean closer, closer, even closer, good... REVIEW ALREADY!**

**-Sarge11**


	2. Chapter 2: Landing

**Return to Crusade**

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing; just Crusade, Me, and, well, me.

I'm really sorry about how long this one took. First, I got Star Wars: Battlefront, which, as you know, is really good at distracting you. Then, when I was ready to write this, my computer's system crashed. I had to write my songfic during lunch at school. And yes, school has started here in Texas, so there will probably be a semi-long pause between chapters. Well, not really, I don't study enough. Anyway, most of this chapter is flashback.

**_Chapter 2: Landing_**

The Rangers are headed for the planet Crusade in the largest assault in Galactic history known as B-Day. Ratchet sat at the front of the row, thinking to himself.

"_We're going to take Crusade," Sasha said for the second time for emphasis…EMPHASIS. _

_She let it soak in until Ratchet spoke up and asked, "What about the Tribes?"_

"_A good question", she replied. "It seems the Tyhrranoids have already taken care of that. They moved in and eliminated all of them."_

_Ratchet answered with another question. "Why do we need to take Crusade for ourselves?"_

"_The proximity of Crusade to Tyhrranosis makes it the perfect place to launch our major attacks on the main planet, also, we have obtained intelligence that the new Tyhrranoid leader, the Tyhrranoid Pa' is personally overseeing the operations on Crusade," she added._

_A murmur went through the crowd at the mention of the Tyhrranoid Pa'. They had heard of him. If there wasn't a crime or atrocity he hadn't committed, it didn't have a name. In fact, most thought he was legend._

The ship jumped as it entered the atmosphere, and bucked as it came under fire from the surface.

"_Oh, and Ratchet, I'd like to talk to talk to you in your quarters," Sasha added._

_(Later in his quarters)_

"Look, Ratchet, about last night. Uh, how do I say this…maybe we shouldn't go out anymore," Sasha said, simultaneously ending their relationship and leaving Ratchet free.

**(Author's Note: Sarge11 is on another dropship.)**

"30 seconds!" Ratchet's thoughts were interrupted by the pilot's call. Sarge, if you want to leave the Rangers with a few words of advice before touchdown, you'd best be doin' it now!"

Ratchet stood up in front of everyone and said, "If we get separated look for me, I'll have my Tesla Barrier up so you can see me. I'll provide covering fire."

The ship jumped again as it plunged into the sea and activated its propellers.

"10 seconds!" The pilot shouted as it surfaced and started making its way to the beach.

A whistle blew, signaling they 2 were seconds away from the beach. Ratchet activated his Tesla Barrier. "Clear the ramp!" The pilot shouted.

The ramp went down and the Rangers saw a 75-mile stretch of beach all covered with dropships. The first Rangers out got killed instantly, and Ratchet knew it was going to be a tougher fight than it looked.

**Ah yes, those cliffies they just force ya' to review don't they?**

**-Sarge11**


	3. Chapter 3: A Helping Hand

Return to Crusade

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing. Just B-Day, Inferno squad, the Galactic Civil War, and Sarge11.

Chapter 3: A Helping Hand 

The ramp extended and Ratchet ran out of the Dropship, the sound of explosions, gunfire, and officers shouting orders reached his ears. Ratchet got bumped in the back and turned around; cowering behind his Tesla Barrier was his entire squad of Rangers. Before he could tell them to spread out, there was a loud bang as the artillery behind the bunkers opened up on the dropships. There was a loud screaming sound as the shell headed for the dropship he had just left.

"Everybody hit the deck!" Ratchet shouted.

The Rangers ran back into the Dropship and started smashing the deck.

"Not that deck!" Ratchet started running away from the Dropship, hoping the Rangers were following him.

Pssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The explosion knocked Ratchet off his feet and depleted his Tesla Barrier. A piece of white-hot debris branded the tip of his ear. Ratchet howled in pain and started sucking on his ear. As he was about to get back up, a Ranger's head fell and landed right in front of his face. He was so surprised that he fell back over. And not a moment too soon, for as his head hit the beach, about thirty bullets whizzed by his head.

"Must…find…others," he rasped. He must have broken his arm or something because it wasn't responding.

He crawled into a crater where he found Sarge11 and a medic tending an organic soldier, whose entire front body was covered with blood.

As Ratchet crawled up to the group, he heard the soldier gasp, "My gut's been torn out!"

The medic tried to comfort him. "It's O.K., you're gonna make it."

This made Ratchet pause. He thought,_ Maybe I shouldn't distract them._

However, before he could crawl away, Sarge11 saw him. "Hey Ratchet! It's nice to see you're still with us. Where's the rest of your squad?"

"Wiped out," he rasped.

"Oh," he replied softly.

Bang!

The soldier suddenly went limp, a bullet hole through his head.

"Take cover!" Sarge11 yelled.

They scooted lower in the crater.

"Who was that?" Ratchet asked, gesturing towards the bloody mess that was the soldier.

"He was the last of my squad not including the medic. His name was Corporal Jerry Adams," Sarge11 looked at Ratchet with sadness in his eyes. "It's a shame such fine young men have to be wasted like this."

"What's going on with all the rest of the troops?" Ratchet asked.

"It doesn't look good. We've already lost about 200 troops, and we've only been in Hell for 5 minutes" he answered.

"We need more men, or at least some decent air cover," Ratchet said.

"Tell me about it!" Sarge11 said.

All of a sudden, Ratchet's Helpdesk link piped up.

"_This is Inferno Lead. Looks like you could use some help down there boys!"_

_That voice. _Ratchet thought. _It sounds so familiar._

Then, he realized who it was. He raised his wrist up to his mouth and spoke into it. "_Angela_! Is that you?"

"_Ratchet! You're down there? So, I see you're roughing it with **common** soldiers."_

"Sure, whatever. Look, we need some air cover. Think you could take out that artillery and those bunkers, so we can get to the Barracks?"

"_That's what I'm here for." _she said. "_All wings report in!" _she ordered.

"_Inferno 2 standing by!"_

"_Inferno 6 standing by!"_

"_Inferno 3 standing by!"_

"_Inferno 4 standing by!"_

"_Inferno 5 standing by!"_

Six Megacorp starfighters flew into view. Weapons popped out of slots all over the bodies' of the starships.

Ratchet shouted, "Fire in the hole!"

They heard several huge explosions and the ground shook.

When it was finally over, they all stood up; there was no longer anybody shooting at them.

"To the Barracks!" Ratchet ordered.

"_You're welcome!" _Angela sighed, agitated. _"Oh, and, Ratchet.?"_

"Yeah?" he asked.

"_We need to talk when you're done clearing the Barracks," _she said.

Ratchet gulped. "Um. Sure thing." He was more afraid of her than he was of the Tyhrranoids he was about to kill.

WAHOO! This chapter came out even better than expected! If I were you, I would do the smart thing and review, then wait for the next chapter.

**-Sarge11**


	4. Chapter 4: An Interrupted Quarrel

**Return to Crusade**

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer: **You know the drill.

_**Chapter 4: An Interrupted Quarrel**_

"**WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"** Angela's explosion was more of a yell than a question.

Ratchet tried to sink farther in his chair. "I, uh, um, ah."

"What kind of boyfriend are you?" she questioned, for the millionth time. "What kind of boyfriend runs off for about a year and a half? Do you know how long I stayed up each night wondering when you would be back? Then I hear about you and some, some, WOLF GIRL going off together! At first I just think it's all rumors, then I see you with her in a tabloid. Yet, I still figure it's just some made up thing. But then, I see you at a movie theater, with her pulling you over the side of her seat, and kissing you on the cheek! And what's worse? You were actually grinning! And when you pulled away, you were looking at her lips like you wanted more!"

"Dang Paparazzi." Ratchet whispered.

"Don't talk about the Paparazzi like that," she snapped. "If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have found out about you and Sasha."

_That's the point_, Ratchet thought. "How do you know her name?" he asked.

"Let me think, hmm. Let's see, she's the President's daughter, it's not too hard to get on the Holonet and find these things out," she explained.

Nobody had noticed Clank before. During the battle, he had stayed in orbit coordinating the attack. "Maybe I had better leave."

"No Clank, we need you here for evidence," Angela said.

"Okay," he replied.

"So, as I was saying, I heard you were going to be in some big battle here, so I asked Mr. Fizz to lend me some starfighters and bombers. So I came over here and pretended to be surprised when I, "found out" you were down there," she ranted.

_Oh my gosh! She has serious separation issues, _Ratchet thought. _Women will do strange things in the name of love. Kind of like what happens to me when someone gets in the way of my waffles. _"Uh, sorry?" he mumbled.

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" she snapped.

"Well what do you wa-?"

Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

His question was cut off by an alarm.

"We are under attack," Clank said.

Angela glared daggers at Clank as if the attack had been his fault. "We'll finish this later," she said poking Ratchet in the chest so that he fell backwards in his chair. She turned to Clank. "What's the form of attack?"

"Amphibious… land and sea. As well, the Tyhrranoid Pa' is heading the assault," Clank answered.

"Then we'll need to take a bomber. Ratchet, you'll be coming with me. One of my pilots came down with some strange disease," she said.

"O.K., I'll go," Ratchet said.

"_Pilot to Bombardier, Pilot to Bombardier. We are closing in on the target, prepare to drop payload. Over," _said Angelaover the speaker.

"This is the Bombardier, requesting position of target and identification. Over," Ratchet replied.

"Target is position Alpha, Foxtrot 19" Identification, Jaguar class Tyhrranoid Frigate. Over," she replied.

"Roger pilot, coordinates received, target locked, payload armed. Bombs away!" Ratchet yelled.

The frigate exploded in blue flame. "Yahoo! Chalk up another cruiser for the R-Man! Bombardier to Pilot, payload has been spent, need to find a rearm station. In the meantime, switching to main turret. Over"

"Order received, returning to base. Over," She said.

The whole battle had been going basically the same way for hours. Destroying the ships before they could make landfall.

**So, what did you think? Not too bad, if I don't say so myself. I originally intended something far grander, but, then again, so many ideas are lost during sleep.**

**-Sarge11**


	5. Chapter 5: Sabotage

Return to Crusade

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer:**

I had a real hard time thinking up this chapter. And when I finally did have the idea, I went through a great many writer's blocks to bring you, the reader, the details. So you'd better appreciate this. And you can do that in a review. And so I say, if you are reading this, then review.

_**Chapter 5: Sabotage**_

Ratchet and the force have been on Crusade for several months, leading several coordinated attacks on small cells of Tyhrranoid forces for complete control of the planet. We join our hero at the turning point of the final battle for the planet, when Ratchet starts to feel funny.

"Oh, man," Ratchet burped and hiccupped at the same time, causing his stomach contents to come up to the top of his throat. He threw up all over a nearby Ranger. "I don't feel so good."

Ratchet fell to the ground, completely oblivious to the Ranger's screams next to him. The screams attracted other, nearby Rangers; they rushed over to him. "Medic! Sarge is down!"

"Which one?" asked the medic over the radio.

"The Lombax!" the Ranger replied. "Oh wait, no. I just received conformation from squad Charlie in Sector 3. Sarge11 is, apparently going insane."

"Abigail. Oh Abigail. My non-nagging Galactic Civil War wife," Sarge11's voice came over the speakers.

"The Rangers started laughing. "He's having delusions!" laughed the radioman from Charlie squad over the speaker.

Their laughter was cut short by the sound and vibrations of a series of explosions that rocked the plateau. "It's Inferno squadron! They're crashing for no apparent reason! We've lost all contact with the ones that are still flying."

The last thing Ratchet remembered was feeling very sick, very hot, very sweaty, and the screams of the Rangers as one of Inferno squadron's bombers headed for the trench they were in.

_(Hmmm, let's see. Should I leave you hangin' with a seriously awesome cliffhanger, or should I be merciful and continue? Choices (taps chin five times). O.K. fine, I'll keep writing. It's too short so far anyway.)_

Ratchet woke up in one of those hospital gowns that nobody likes because the back is open in one of those uncomfortable beds. And boy, did he have a nasty crick in the neck. He sat up and looked around, painfully cracking his neck in the process. He was in a massive sick bay, every bed filled with the sick and dying. He looked to the left of his bed, hoping to see Sasha, but was disappointed to see only Clank in a sleep cycle. To lighten his mood, he tried to dwell on the dream he had just had, which I will not describe due to the "T" rating.

"Oh, my stomach. It feels like I had one of those Nanofish bars I'm allergic to." Ratchet suddenly felt the need to empty his stomach. He leaned over the side of his bed and did what his instincts told him to.

The noise roused Clank. "Ratchet, you are up."

Ratchet groggily nodded and said, "Uh-hu. Sure. I'm hungry. I feel like steak," said Ratchet.

"It would not matter the taste Ratchet. We have detected an accelerated form of Nanotech in the food," said Clank.

_(Authors note: For the benefit of the reader, I will describe what accelerated Nanotech is. It is basically Nanotech that has been reversed and used as food poisoning that is activated by saliva. The various side affects include: extreme vomiting, deliria, passing out, and high fever. Mostly, it's slow acting, but sometimes it acts fast. Remember the sick bomber pilot?)_

"What?" Ratchet screamed, causing a stir in the sick bay. "We've been poisoned?"

"Yes," replied Clank.

"Oh my gosh! Inferno squadron! Is Angela alright?" Ratchet asked.

_(Authors note: Ratchet's dream was about Angela! I wonder what Sasha will think.)  
_

Clank looked at him funny. "Yes. But she is in the emergency room."

Ratchet let out a sigh of relief, relieved that she was still alive. "What about Sarge11? I have too few friends left. I'd hate to loose such a good one."

"Though the symptoms would not be serious for any of us, his primitive body makes his state critical," Clank replied.

Suddenly, he threw up again.

When he was through, an alarm started screeching.

Clank activated his holo antenna and displayed a holographic image of what the base perimeter cameras were seeing. "We are under attack from the surviving Tyhrranoids of our last attack."

"Well, we have to go help the Rangers," said the stubborn Lombax.

"Ratchet, you are in no condition to fight," said Clank.

"So?" asked Ratchet. Those Rangers don't stand a chance without me."

"Yes, Ratchet. I realize that. However, I have called in a carrier battle group. They are headed here at flank speed but they are still a few hours away. The Rangers should be able to hold them off until they arrive," said Clank.

"But, all those Rangers-" argued Ratchet.

"Much must be sacrificed in war, soldier," interrupted Clank.

"You're right. It's not the 1960's. It's not the 1960's. It's not the 1960's," said Ratchet again and again while rocking back and forth.

"The first wave is coming in, now," said Clank. "Organize the Rangers.

Yes! Finally! A chapter that finally came out better than I had anticipated it! Those writer's blocks were worth it. Anyway, if you are reading this again, then review.

**-Sarge11**


	6. Chapter 6: A Ranger's Point of View

**Return to Crusade**

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything except Crusade, Myself, B-Day, Inferno squadron, and the accelerated form of Nanotech.

**Please, Mr. D 91, don't kill me for stealing your title! Anyway, thank you superdork398 for reviewing and, though I really do appreciate the praise, you seem a bit obssesive. I love that in a person!  
**

_**Chapter 6: A Ranger's Point of View**  
_

As Ratchet is coping with his disease, our focus shifts from the heroic Lombax, to the replacement, Ranger H-22, on the frontline.

"The Tyhrranoids are coming! Where's Sarge?" asked the commanding Ranger.

Before a regular could answer, a medic cut in. "In the sick bay, poisoned. You are now the commanding officer."

"What? You mean I'm in charge? No! That means they're gonna try and kill me first!" H-22 screamed. He pointed at an AT soldier that was standing next to him. "You!" The soldier snapped to attention. "You're the new commanding officer! I have to leave because, uh, my wife is 9 months pregnant and about to give birth! Yeah that's it." He picked up a radio and held it up to his mouth, if you could call it a mouth and spoke into it. "Listen up everyone! I have to leave for personal reasons and so… you what is your label?"

"H-26, sir," said the AT soldier.

"H-26 will be your new commander." 22 ran up to him and quickly shook his hand. "Congratulations H-26, you're the new commanding officer. Let me know how it turns out." He handed him the radio and ran off screaming.

"Um, O.K. This is H-26 to all units. I'm taking command. Let's waste those Puss Buckets," said the new officer. "What do I do now?" he asked the medic next to him.

"Get everyone into position," said the medic.

"Places everyone, places," said 26.

"It's not a ballet or a play, you know," said the medic. "Say it right.

"EVERYONE INTO POSITION! MOVE IT! How was that?" he asked.

"Adefuate," said the medic, his speaking slurred because the volume of the order had briefly short-circuited his voice box.

"Here they come! Get ready," 26 ordered. "All units report status."

"2, ready."

"3, ready."

"8, waiting."

"4, ready."

"5, waiting."

"6, waiting."

"7, ready."

"Everyone, stay alert," said 26. "Here they come."

They looked out of their trench. If they had bladders they would probably have wet themselves. They had never seen so many Tyhrranoids in their lives.

"This is not just the ones left over from our last attack. This is the entire race of Tyhrranoids rushing at us," cowered H-26. "They expect us to fight this? There's no way we can defeat them. No matter, we'll fight anyway."

"Why, sir?" asked the medic.

"I don't know," he replied. "I guess stubbornness is part of my programming."

"Are you sure it's stubbornness?" asked the medic. "I think it's stupidity."

"You're decommissioned!" screamed 26.

"Yes!" whispered the medic. "I'm not gonna die today!"

"Uh, sir?" said a machine gunner next to him.

"What is it soldier?" he asked.

"That was our last medic," said the distraught MG.

As they were getting far into the argument, they were interrupted by the sounds of gunfire, a little too close for comfort.

"Those aren't our guns. Those are their guns. Why aren't we shooting? Return fire!" he shouted. He said quietly to his self, "I sure hope I don't get hurt."

The Ranger strategy was simple. Well, actually, there were three strategies. The first was to stay in the trench, and first, throw all your explosives like grenades, bombs, and missiles at them, then when you're out of those, you hold your position, pop out every now and then and start going to town with your cannon. The second strategy was to stay and hide in the trench. And the third was to run away. Some of them were brave and went with the first strategy, some not so brave, waited until the noids' were right on top of them in the trench before finally engaging. But, sadly, most of them used the last strategy and ran away.

"Shoot or be shot!" yelled 26.

That brought back about three quarters of the runaways and got everyone of the ones hiding in the trenches fighting. The ones already fighting fought harder.

"Sir!" shouted the MG. "Good news! I just got a radio alert from Command! We're getting reinforcements!" He paused. "Wait, wait. Now what was that?" He shouted, "An entire carrier battle group!" He paused again. "What? You mean they're still a few hours away?" He closed it and looked at 26. "Let's tell the others that we're getting reinforcements but, ah, let's leave out the fact that they're still a few hours away."

"Good idea," said 26. "Listen up! We're getting reinforcements in the form of an entire carrier battle group!"

A great cheer rose from the army, and the rest of the runaways came running back.

"For victory!" yelled H-26.

"Dude! Will you cut that out! It's not the middle ages!" shouted the MG.

"I know that! You spoiled the moment," whined 26.

"Sorry. Do it again if you have to," said the MG.

"No, no, I can't. You already spoiled it. It won't have the same effect that I was going for," said 26.

"Aw well. Let's fight," said the machine gunner as he popped up and tore up the front line of Tyhrranoids that were closing in on him.

"Let's," said 26.

"Seriously. You need to cut out that whole elegance thing. It's not working for you," said the MG.

"I need a new hobby," 26 whispered.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

H-26 stood alone as his last Ranger got killed and there was still one more Walker left. He had one bomb left. The only problems; it could shoot farther than he could throw, he was badly damaged, he was a long way off, and it noticed him before he could sneak up behind it.

It charged up its lasers as he started running toward it. It fired and hit him in the arm, disintegrating it. As it was charging up its next blast, he threw the bomb. Right before the bomb blew it up, the walker fired and destroyed 26's leg.

As he fell to the ground, he heard on his radio, _This is dropship fleet two-one requesting permission to land over._

He picked up the radio with his good hand and spoke into it. "This is H-26, the commanding officer of the remaining army, permission granted. Oh, and you might want to pick me up. I've got a busted leg and can't move."

_This is dropship 3, activate your homing beacon, and we'll pick you up._

"Thank you," said 26.

**This was a long chapter for me. Anyway, if you are reading this, then review.**

**-Sarge11**


	7. Chapter 7: Invasion

**Return to Crusade**

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer: **I, Sarge11, own Crusade, B-Day, the accelerated form of Nanotech, Inferno squadron, myself, and well, if I were to continue on with this list of the only things I own, you'd probably fall asleep.

**To give you even more reason to review, because I need them very badly, from now on, I will be responding to those of you who review. Just a little side note, AT stands for Anti-Tank. As for the separation lasers, remember in the Second Star Wars movie when they tried to assassinate Padme' using the worms? Same concept.**

**Mr. D 91: Thank you thank you thank you for not killing me. I guess it's because I play too much of it. I might steal some more ideas in the future though, until you tell me it's safe, I will be on high alert.**

**Superdork398: Yes, I know. In fact, it's one of my favorite chapters as well. It's about time you got a new booyah meter.**

_**Chapter 7: Invasion**_

Ratchet has finally recovered from his sickness, and is preparing to partake in the final invasion on Tyhrranosis. However, due to intelligence gained in the last battle for Crusade, they have found out that the Tyhrranoid Pa' is still alive. They only killed his clone, so they're going to have to kill him all over again. Ratchet is currently making plans with his new second in command, Ranger H-26.

"First, Captain Sarge11 and Charlie squad will infiltrate the radar station in orbit and plant explosives in its main core. Then run as if the Tyhrranoid Pa' himself was after you. The loss of the radar station should also destroy all the planetary defense guns. Once the radar station is down, we will use the new jamming boxes to disrupt every transmission all over the planet for one minute. I think everyone should give Angela a big handshake, seeing as these boxes come only from Megacorp." Ratchet nodded at Angela. She nodded back. Ratchet had to clear his throat a little because he was a little embarrassed. Angela blushed under her fur. "Ahem. Anyway, after the transmissions have been jammed, Inferno squadron will swoop down out of nowhere and raid the comms station and tower. After the station and tower have been destroyed, a main group of Rangers will attack at the front of the base. We will throw everything we've got at the base including: tanks, regular Rangers, Dropships, bombs, AT soldiers, Machine gunners, and everything else. Inferno squadron will assist. The only things I want on Crusade when we're geared up, are the Rangers left behind to keep order and the prisoners. While the main force of Tyhrranoids are concentrating on repelling the frontal assault, I and a group of Spec Ops Rangers will unload from a Dropship flying too low for the Tyhrranoids to see. Our plan is to infiltrate the main command and control tower undetected, eliminate the enemy inside, and destroy the tower itself. Next, I will try to find and kill the Tyhrranoid Pa'. While I am off trying to kill him, the Spec Ops Rangers will then kill as many Tyhrranoids as they can from behind the enemy lines. After the Tyhrranoid Pa' is eliminated, I will join the Spec Ops Rangers and break through the enemy lines. This should be easy because the loss of the Tyhrranoid Pa' should weaken the enemy's resolve. Any questions?"

H-26 spoke up. "Sir, how can we be sure every single one of us will succeed?"

"No one knows for certain 26, that's one of the parts of being in the military. You have to call upon knowledge of your enemy and past experience dealing with them. You have to take risks," answered Ratchet.

"Thank you sir. Who are the Spec Ops Rangers you were talking about?" 26 asked.

"There will be eight of us. H-26, you're one of them. Clank will be your commander while I'm fighting the Tyhrranoid Pa'. H-22 would have been a candidate but he's disappeared, so we've replaced him with R-15. The others are H-30, H-10, Q-20, R-50, and unfortunately Skidd. He wouldn't stop bothering me," said Ratchet.

Skidd chose that moment to walk in. "Yo, dudes! Why are you here early?"

"You missed the briefing Skidd," said Ratchet.

Skidd would have answered, but he had fallen asleep.

"Anymore questions? No?" asked Ratchet. "Well then let's get to it."

Sarge11's transport ship approached the asteroid that served as a radar station. His ship was undetected by radar and the eyes of the Tyhrranoids because it had a cloaking device.

"Move in slowly. If we move to fast, they can trace our ion signatures. O.K., now slowly dock with the surface of the asteroid," instructed Sarge11.The transport touched with the surface of the station. "Good, now pressurize the lower chamber." There was a hissing sound as the lower cabin at the bottom of the ship stabilized. Sarge11 started strapping on his gear and gathering his crew. He told the pilot, "Activate the separation lasers." There was a silent, high-pitched screeching sound as the beams connected with the surface of the asteroid. "Everyone, go go go! Make sure your silencers are attached."

They got into the bottom cabin and threw a stun grenade down the hole. It was a good thing they did too, because they dropped down and found a sea of Tyhrranoids surrounding them. They proceeded down the hallway shooting all resistance they encountered. They reached the main core and planted the bomb. They set the timer for one minute because it took them one minute and twenty seconds to make it with the Tyhrranoids, and the halls were empty.

They rushed for the exit where they came in and tried to get out, but unfortunately the Tyhrranoids in the room that got stunned were now awake. It seems Tyhrranoids are quicker to recover from stun weapons than most other species.

"Try and make it to the transport!" ordered Sarge11.

_(View changes to the charges)_**…5…4…3…2…1…0.**

**View changes to outside the station.** The asteroid exploded into a green, yellow, red, and orange ball of gas, incinerating all who were inside.

"_We have visual confirmation, the radar station is no more," _said Inferno squadron's scanner and tech officer.

"Excellent. Here's the strategy. First, the fighters will come in and eliminate all air support that is already in the air, and then we'll destroy the rest of the aircraft still on the ground. While we're eliminating the air threat, a single bomber, that's you Inferno six, will dive in and destroy the anti-aircraft sites. Don't worry about being hit 6;the AA fire will be focused on us. Finally, the rest of the, bombers will dive in and obliterate the comms station and tower. Inferno 5, is the jamming array ready?" Angela asked.

"Yes ma'am. Ready to activate," he replied. 

"Engage. On my signal, unleash Hell," she said as the squadron sped toward the planet.

"_All communication on Tyhrranosis is now blocked, but only for a minute, so be quick," _said Inferno 5.

Angela new that she had only one minute to do this, but that wasn't the dilemma. The problem was, she didn't know what to do with the last fifteen seconds.

The fighters bucked as they entered the atmosphere. They saw the enemy before the enemy saw them. They flew up right behind them and Angela yelled, "Open fire!" They started tearing up the six ships in front of them. Five of them disintegrated in the sky, but the sixth one fell to the ocean. They then armed their missiles, targeted the hangers and barracks, and fired a volley of missiles at them. These were special missiles though. They would open up secret compartments near the middle of the missile about three fourths of the way to the target. Debris supercharged with a hyper accelerated form of Nanotech would fall out and pummel the area around the target, and finally, the missile itself would explode on impact with the target.

Hyper accelerated Nanotech is almost nothing like the accelerated form of Nanotech. It is radioactive material that was once Nanotech, but it does exactly the opposite. If you got some on your body or in your body, it was already too late for you. Because, instead of healing your body from the inside out, it ate your body from the inside out.

It only took about two seconds for the entire airfield to be reduced to burning rubble and writhing bodies.

No one noticed Inferno 6 as she came in and obliterated the AA.

Now the bombers come in and bomb the comms station. The bombs they use are similar to the missiles that Inferno squadron uses. The only difference is, instead of debris, it drops bomblets coated with a deadly form of acid and hyper accelerated Nanotech, so it sprays the chemicals over large distances.

The base was in ruin. Angela stopped her stopwatch. It read 00:45:oo. "Right on schedule," she muttered. They flew off to help the Rangers attacking on the frontline. However, no one noticed the single AA missile that made it through heading for Angela's ship.

"Sir, all forms of endangerment to our part of the mission have been eliminated," said the Ranger piloting the Dropship.

"Superb. Bring us in low, pilot," said Clank.

"Hey, I'm the one that's supposed to be giving orders," said Ratchet.

"Yeah, dude. You don't wanna mess with him. I heard he saved, like, to galaxies and stuff, man," Skidd put in.

"I would know Skidd; I was there," Clank tried to say, but was interrupted by Skidd's snoring. He had fallen asleep again.

"I swear, he could have an ion cannon go off next to him and he could sleep through it," Ratchet mused.

"Sir, we're coming up on the western LZ, are you ready?" asked the pilot.

"Not yet. Skidd fell asleep again. Hold on, I think I have an idea." Ratchet bent down and whispered something in his ear.

Skidd shuddered and woke up screaming. "I just had a bad dream, dudes! I dreamed that Ratchet, of all people, beat me in a Hoverboard race!"

"Uh, yeah, whatever," Ratchet stammered.

"Is that really what you told him?" asked Clank unbelievingly.

"No, I whispered to him that **_Al _**beat him at a Hoverboard race," Ratchet answered. "It can't be that bad," said Ratchet, knowing that he had done it before.

"No way, dude. There's no way a scrawny dude like you, could beat someone like me," said Skidd arrogantly.

"Just get your stuff together!" Ratchet fumed.

"Already got it, bro. I'm an all in one package!" Skidd boasted.

"We're all ready back here!" said Ratchet to the pilot.

"Opening main hatchway," said the pilot. The door hissed open and they ran out, blasting every Tyhrranoid in sight.

They ran through the main corridor, blasting everything they came up against, and up to a large air vent that went through the main complex. Once inside, they crawled slowly until the initial alert of their presence had blown over. They moved until they cold see the tower. Ratchet took out three wrenches. The first, he stuck into the wall opposite the opening and tied a thin but strong line of synthetic carbonox thread around the handle. The second, he also tied the string to, but instead of sticking it into the wall, he threw it out of the opening hard enough that the wrench stuck to the tower creating a zipline. The third wrench, his own personal wrench, he used to slide across. The Rangers then tossed the explosives over to Ratchet. He threw the wrench back to them and Clank slid over. Then the Rangers, and finally, a scared to death Skidd McMarx. They then scooted around the building and to the door. There were no stairs because there was a new breed of Tyhrranoid that could fly, was smarter than average, but were poor fighters. The only way you could make it into the tower was if you could fly, and you got a positive IQ scan. They planned to blast it.

They were about to blow in the door, when a giant shadow loomed over them. Ratchet and the others turned around and gulped. It was the Tyhrranoid Pa'! Imagine the Tyhrranoid Momma, except twenty times uglier and packing fifty times as much firepower.

"My God! He's so ugly!" screamed Skidd.

"SHUT UP SKIDD!" yelled Ratchet.

An angry Tyhrranoid Pa' knocked them off a thirty story building and into oblivion.

Mwahahahahahahaha! I feel sorry for you. It must be terrible having to wait for the next chapter like this. I already have an idea for the next chapter. The only way to make my job easier is if I get a decent amount of reviews. So technically, it's up to you how long you suffer. Gosh, I'm so brilliant! This is my greatest chapter ever! And it even came out faster than I expected, for once! I am taking a poll. When you review, and review you shall, answer this question: Do you think I should get killed in the next chapter?

**-Sarge11**


	8. Chapter 8: How Revealing!

**Return to Crusade**

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer: **Well, let me tell you a story. I own nothing except the stuff not seen in the games. There, that was a very good story wasn't it.

**And now, your review answers.**

**Mr. D 91: Thanks for the advice. Really? I, myself, actually think Skidd's part could have used some work.**

**jay. w.: I told you!**

**Michael Llu: I was already thinking of doing that. Great minds think alike I guess. Hey! There's another thing we have in common! Lol!**

**Catalyst of MSAD51: Thank you very much.**

**superdork398: Yes! The Booyah Meter is back online!**

**In the operation of the last chapter, Ratchet was Alpha 1.**

_**Chapter 8: How Revealing!**_

Ratchet and Clank have been captured; Angela and Sarge11 are MIA. I know what happened to them, am I gonna tell you? No way!

Ratchet opened his eyes, but could see nothing. He gagged, the room smelled incredibly rank. He heard some strange noises, not made by machines… made by Tyhrranoids.

"Uuuurrrrrrrppp!" Ratchet heard a big Tyhrranoid belch and a large, yet not quite as large as the first, fart a reply. This pushed his stomach to its limits, and he vomited.

The noise caused a hush throughout the room. He heard footsteps, large footsteps, coming toward him. He felt a primitive cloth slide across his face. _I'm blindfolded,"_ thought Ratchet.

The blindfold came completely off, and his eyes fell on the ugliest Tyhrranoid he had ever seen. He would have vomited again, if there still was anything left in his stomach. The Tyhrranoid Pa' was even uglier in the bright light of the experimenting room, than in the evening sun.

Much to Ratchet's surprise, it spoke. "Hello, Lombax," it bellowed.

"What? How can you speak English?" Ratchet asked.

"I have to know what language to reply in when my prisoners plea for mercy," replied the repulsive creature.

"How did you know we were on the tower?" Ratchet questioned.

"It's simple really. I aloud you to get all the vital information that was so essential to your attack. I knew all about your plans." The Tyhrranoid Pa' laughed. "Your puny forces will not last a minute. What awaits them, is an entire army of my best men. However, if you agree to call off the attack, then I will be forced to unleash all of them. Yes, what your precious Rangers are struggling so hard to defeat is only a fraction of what they are about to face."

"Forget it!" Ratchet spat. "I'll never order them to retreat! Two of my most loyal and trusted friends have dealt with your key points of defense!"

"Foolish Lombax! Do you, by any chance, mean these friends?" The Tyhrranoid Pa' signaled to his second in command and a compartment in the wall opened up. Chained to the wall, were Angela and Sarge11! He made some strange noises that I don't feel like repeating, and his second in command held its gun to Sarge11's head. "Perhaps this will persuade you otherwise."

Sarge11 felt the gun on his head and started sweating. "Don't call off the attack! You know as well as I do that we stand more than a chance!"

"Listen to him, Ratchet," Angela was almost sobbing. "Don't do what that puss bucket tells you!" The Tyhrranoid commander socked her in the stomach with the butt of his rifle. Angela whimpered.

"I… I can't. Sorry guys." Ratchet turned to the Tyhrranoid Pa'. "Give me a radio." The thing complied. "This is Alpha 1 to all units. You are to retreat immediately, I repeat, retreat immediately, out." He turned the radio off and started to sob uncontrollably.

Sarge11 and Angela stared at Ratchet incredulously. "I can't believe it," Sarge11 said quietly.

While they were sitting there, feeling terrible for letting the galaxy down, they saw something strange; something they had never seen before. It was a white Tyhrranoid, and had blue eyes. They saw it climb above all of them until it was right over the Tyhrranoid Pa'. Even stranger, it dropped a circular object on top of the Tyhrranoid Pa'. The circular object was a bomb. The explosion completely blew apart the Tyhrranoid Pa' revealing none other than, Dr. Nefarious!

And before Ratchet, Angela, or Sarge11 could say anything, Nefarious was on his feet. "My disguise, my disguise!" Nefarious ranted and jumped from one foot to the other. He stopped when he noticed everyone staring at him. "Lawrence! Get in here now!" he screamed.

Lawrence appeared in a flash of orange and white. "You bellowed sir?"

"Teleport us out of here now!" Nefarious screamed.

"Of course, sir," replied Lawrence.

Ratchet blinked a couple times and said, "What the heck was that?"

The albino Tyhrranoid jumped down from the ceiling and released them. He spoke English, but with a hard to understand Russian accent. "Finally! The sham has been lifted and Dr. Nefarious has been exposed! I've been trying to expose him for almost a month now!"

"What the heck are you?" asked Sarge11, rubbing his wrists where the shackles were.

"I am one of the last original Tyhrranoid. We are the ones who have been causing trouble on Tyhrranosis. We are the rebels who wish nothing more to see these other altered Tyhrranoids leave our homeland, preferably in coffins, of course," said the Tyhrranoid.

"Then what are those things we've been fighting all this time," asked Ratchet.

"Those are altered Tyhrranoids who Nefarious changed for his own purposes," explained the weirdo Tyhrranoid. "They have been changed into frontline soldiers, when originally, we kept to the shadows and killed silently, often without casualties for us. But, Dr. Nefarious knew assassins wouldn't work, so he decided to attack at the front."

"Oh. Hey, while you were sneaking around, did you happen to see a small robot or a tall Rilgarian hoverboard champion?" asked Ratchet.

"Yes, they are in cell block three," he answered.

"What is your name?" asked Ratchet.

"Tomas," he simply answered.

"I'm Sergeant Ratchet; the two over there are Lieutenant Angela and Captain Sarge11," Ratchet introduced all of them.

"You are our captive," Tomas stated and squinted his eyes. "We know all about your objective, but right now, we have our own mission to complete. Since you if we are going to help you, you must first help us. Get your crew together. We're moving on the enemy position in a few hours."

"Wait, you mean there are more of you?" asked Angela.

"Yes, very many," replied Tomas.

"And what exactly is the mission you need our help with?" asked Sarge11.

"The enemy has detected our main camp, we need your help in a counter attack. Every man is useful to us. In exchange for helping us out, we will give you a transport out of here," said Tomas.

**I know, this chapter sucks. I just lost ideas after the part where you find out that the rest are alive. Anyway, I need an idea for a new chapter after the next one which, as you know, is the chapter where Ratchet and the rest help out the original Tyhrranoids fight back.**

**-Sarge11**


	9. Chapter 9: Bad News

**Return to Crusade**

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer: **Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

**Mr. D 91: Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate the gesture but, one night, while I was up thinking about the cool games I wish I had, I had a sudden stroke of inspiration. Anyway, I personally think that if I had gone in your direction, the story would be too short. Thanks for the compliment. I plan to.**

**Michael Llu: Close but no cigar. I plan on putting this story much farther than Crusade.**

**I am fed up with only getting one or two reviews per chapter! So, from now on, I will only submit a new chapter every 3 reviews. **

**_Chapter 9: Bad News_**

Long story short, Ratchet, Angela, Sarge11, and Tomas broke out Clank and Skidd, and made their way back to the Rebellion's main camp. There, they prepared to defend the base.

"Hey! Why are you climbing up those trees? The enemy will attack from the ground," Ratchet said, unaware of the delicate art of the sniper.

Tomas answered him. "We are the original Tyhrranoids. We're no good on the ground!"

"But the motto for a sniper is, 'One shot, one kill', you aren't gonna survive long by picking them off one by one!" Ratchet shouted.

"That's what you are for!" replied Tomas.

"Oh", Ratchet suddenly got it. He would attack the enemy head on and provide the Rebels with some covering fire.

Angela's voice came over a headset. _"Ratchet, I'm showing several blips appearing all around the area you're in. They've got you surrounded!"_

"That's why I brought my big guns," he simply replied.

Angela was silent.

Sarge11's voice came from the treetops. "I can see them, here they come."

Ratchet ran from the cover of the trees and took out one of his favorite weapons, the shock cannon.

_(Well, it's my favorite anyway.)_

He charged it up and let loose a bright beam of decimation on the advancing line of Tyhrranoids. Normally, Tyhrranoids are stupid and attack in unorganized waves. However, the Tyhrranoids that were attacking realized the power of formations a bit too late. They came running at Ratchet in large, tightly packed formations, making the casualties much higher than they would have been if they attacked in unorganized waves.

The Tyhrranoids scattered after several beams were unleashed, finally realizing the error.

While Ratchet was charging up for another shot, there were many loud bursts heard from the camp. The immediate front line of Tyhrranoids dropped to the ground. However, on shot was late and the shell flew right over his head. Ratchet twisted around and saw the bloody remains of a Tyhrranoid Commander.

_Probably Sarge11. He's always covering my back. _He gave a thumbs up and started shooting at the Tyhrranoids which were now scattered with regular blasts.

When he ran out of ammo for his Shock Cannon, he switched to his Plasma Coil. The wide tendrils of electronic death reached far to kill many. Once the ammo for that was out, he switched to his Rift Ripper, sending all close by Tyhrranoids to Hell. However, before one one-eyed Tyhrranoid was sucked in, it grabbed a piece of Ratchet's leg with its teeth, and tore off a chunk of flesh, his last meal. Ratchet screamed and limped/staggered away from the front line, in too much pain for his eyes to well up.

Clank spoke up from behind him, "Ratchet, your Nanopack is full; you can use it."

"Good idea," Ratchet whimpered.

Ratchet took out his good combat knife and used it to cut the pack open. He could feel the Nanobots going to work as they mended his torn flesh. Although his leg was healed, the pain did not go away.

Now that he was thoughroly pissed off, he decided to bring out the big guns. He brought out his Disc Blade Gun. The Tyhrranoids had gotten back in formation. He aimed the weapon at the groups and waited for the snipers to fire.

Bam! He fired a single blade at the confused Tyhrranoids. The blade went through the group separating blade after blade. When, finally, the last blades reached their targets, instead of going through the Tyhrranoids, they stuck in them and exploded, sending out a shockwave. Ratchet looked at what he had done.

_Two whole regiments. Not too bad for five minutes worth of fighting, _Ratchet thought. He spoke into his radio, "Angela how many bad guys are left?"

"_I'm not seeing anything… wait. There's something big behind you! Look out!" _Angela shouted and teleported to his position. Ratchet turned around in time to see Angela jump up on to a single Tyhrranoid Walker and tear the eye stalks off of the pilot.

Ratchet stared at her like he had just met her.

Angela stepped back and brushed herself off and looked at Ratchet like nothing had happened. "What?" she asked.

"Uh, nothing," Ratchet stuttered. "We need to get back to the Phoenix and tell Sasha that Nefarious is back."

Angela hissed at the sound of Ratchet's ex.

Tomas came forward. "I believe we owe you something. Since you helped us, we will tell you everything we know about Dr. Nefarious' plan. All we know right now is that he's been using us as a front for something."

"Thank you for all your help, Tomas. Angela, do a planetary scan. I want to know how many Tyhrranoids are left on this planet," Ratchet ordered.

Angela checked the readout on her watch. "There are no more Tyhrranoids left."

"Good," Ratchet replied.

**Back on the Phoenix:**

Ratchet ran out of the living quarters yelling. Clank was slower to follow and was blown forward by the explosion.

"What's happening Sarge?" asked a nearby Ranger.

"Angela and Sasha got in a fight over me and they found the key to my personal weapons locker! Apparently, Sasha still has feelings for me," Ratchet panted.

"We're gonna need some serious stunning material to stop them," said the Ranger. "I know! I have some Snooze Mist. It works on both Lombaxs and Cazars."

"Good enough," Ratchet replied. He put on his old O2 mask. Rangers threw several canisters into the room. There was a hiss as the canisters unleashed the mist. Suddenly, the explosions stopped.

"Whew!" Ratchet heaved a sigh of relief.

Sasha and Angela woke up on restraining chairs in the Bridge.

"Good, you're awake. Just thought you would want to know, Tyhrranosis is ours. Besides that, I have some bad news. Dr. Nefarious is alive and he's planning something we don't know yet. So far, all we know is that he created mutant Tyhrranoids in the beginning so he could overthrow the galaxy. Now, his scheme includes disguising himself as the Tyhrranoid Pa' and using Tyhrranosis as a front," Ratchet explained.

But neither Sasha nor Angela heard him because they were too busy snarling and clawing at each other. They stopped snarling and frothing when a hologram of Dr. Nefarious appeared in front of them.

"_Mwahahahahahahahahaha!" _he laughed.

**This was a pretty good chapter, but still not one of my best. You know the review policy, so do it.**

**-Sarge11**


	10. Chapter 10: Revelation

Return to Crusade

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer: **…

**Michael Llu: Probably not for both of your ideas.**

**David the Great: What gives?** **Next time don't even bother.**

**r-random-r-and-c-fan: Don't worry about it. They may eventually work together.  
**

** Mr. D 91: Of course there will be more fights.**

**superdork398: Thanks. **

**Attention my loyal readers. Unfortunately, I have found out that my school no longer allows anyone onto our beloved The downside? I will not be able to write at school from now on. However, there is a good part. Although I won't be able to get chapters up as often, they will probably be better.**

Chapter 10: Revelation 

They stood there, waiting for Nefarious to stop laughing. Ratchet flinched because he felt a drop of some liquid fall on his head. He looked up and saw Skidd leaning over him, asleep and drooling. He sidestepped out of the way.

The mad doctor glared at them now that he had stopped laughing. "Hello, Ratchet. How long has it been now, to years?"

"It hasn't been long enough," said Ratchet under his breath.

"What are you planning this time?" asked Sasha, regaining her composure.

"Since you're about to die anyway, I guess it's safe to tell you," said Nefarious.

The crew started at this and looked around.

"How can you kill us; you're just a hologram," asked Ratchet.

"Listen," said the insane scientist.

As they listened, they could here the clinking of metal on metal coming from above.

Before they could say anything, Nefarious continued. "I plan to use my army of Tyhrranoid Momma clones to eliminate all organic life forms in the universe! Which I here is much bigger than a galaxy. They have swallowed machines that convert all living things that move through its stomach into machines. They will swallow them whole and spit them out as robots! It will be much more fun that way. For what it's worth, it may be of some interest to you to know that I am attacking Veldin first, with the help of my new minions, the Grays." Small aliens stepped into view. They were gray, had large, brain-shaped heads, and big, black eyes. He stuck his tongue out, stuck his fingers in the holes that served as ears, and raspberried them. "You can't find me, you can't find me!" he chanted and disappeared.

Clank announced to everyone in the room, "I have an idea." He turned to Ratchet. "Do you still have your Pyrocitor?"

"Yeah. Why?" asked Ratchet.

Clank ignored him and turned to Al. "Do you still want to install that blowtorch in my arm?"

"You bet I would!" said Al.

"Good, we will only need the front part of the gun," said Clank.

"What are you getting at?" asked Ratchet.

Clank just tried to smile.

_(One minute later)_

Clank climbed into the vents and moved slowly and quietly through the vents. After he had explored about half the ship, he finally heard the clinking sound coming from around a corner. As he edged around the corner, he saw simply a one-eyed Robonoid. However, as Clank moved in to investigate, it saw him, sat down and opened its mouth. Clank watched in horror as about thirty smaller OERs jumped out of its mouth. Immediately after they were settled, each of the thirty did the exact same as the first. Clank held out his arm and the Pyrocitor appeared. He activated it and bright red flame filled the vent. Only a few made it out of the inferno, though they were badly burned, and were quickly taken out with a few solid punches.

_(Author's Note: For those of you who aren't military strategists, I will describe tunnel vision. Tunnel vision is basically when you focus only on what's ahead of you, and is mostly discouraged. The problem with tunnel vision is, it makes it very easy for the enemy to flank you, which means to come around from behind.)_

Unfortunately for Clank, he forgot the rules about the rules of tunnel vision and didn't notice the red eyes that had suddenly appeared behind him. Sadly, the first time he noticed it was after half of his body was being chewed on.

The crew is trying to find out where the transmission may have come from. Sarge11 sat alone, deep in thought.

"Do you think he could be in Bogon?" asked Angela.

"No, he would have used a different transmitter, there was small a mirror in the background and it looked more primitive than any transmitter I've ever seen," said Sasha.

"How do you know?" snapped Angela.

"Because I'm smarter, that's how!" screamed Sasha.

Ratchet slapped his forehead and shook his head.

Sarge11 groaned and yelled, "Would you shut up? All this yelling is making it hard to think!"

"Well, you haven't exactly been helping out," said Ratchet.

"It's so simple." Sarge11 rose his voice. "Did any of you catch the sign on the wall?"

They were silent.

"The sign said Area 51. We need to go to Earth. That's where we'll find him," said Sarge11.

_(In Earth's orbit)_

"The Dropship's all ready Sarge. You got all your crew together?" asked a Ranger.

"Not yet. Clank! Clank! Clank!" Ratchet called again and again with no reply.

"You'll have to go without him, Ratchet," said Angela. "However, I can give you this good luck charm." She walked over to him and kissed him.

Ratchet turned pink under his fur. Red because he enjoyed it, and pale because he was scared that Sasha would find out._  
_

Now that they were finally done, Ratchet got on the Dropship and prayed the great prayer. I'm talking about the prayer that your ex-girlfriend who is still crazy about you didn't see you making out with a new girlfriend.

They landed on Earth and disembarked inside the secret base. Strangely enough, craters and bodies covered the place.

Sarge11, who used to work at Area 51, looked confused. "That's weird. I didn't think anything could penetrate the outer defenses of this place."

"Let's just get to finding Nefarious," said Ratchet.

"I know this may sound weird, but I saw another sign on the wall in the transmission. He's in the women's locker room," said Sarge11 uneasily.

"Well that certainly complicates matters," said Ratchet equally as uneasy.

They passed through all the corridors, trying to ignore the smell.

"Dead bodies," whispered Sarge11.

They finally came to the door of the women's locker room.

"You go first," said Ratchet.

"No, you go first," countered Sarge11.

"I'm not going in there," said Ratchet.

"Why don't we get a Ranger to check it out?" asked Sarge11.

"Sounds reasonable to me," said Ratchet. "You, go check it out."

The Ranger went in and checked it out. Seconds later, he came running out screaming.

"It was horrible Sarge! There were only toilets! It's like nothing I've ever seen before! The showers had some kind of strange soap in them! I think it was called moisturizer. What does that mean? Don't make me go back in there, Sarge!" the Ranger screamed.

"Sure," said Ratchet, shaking like he had never shaken before.

Sarge11 kicked the door down.

"Why'd you do that?" asked Ratchet. "It was unlocked."

"Because it's cool," he replied.

"I hope that Ranger was quiet while he was in here," said Ratchet.

They walked through slowly. The Rangers screamed and ran out. Ratchet looked in the direction the Rangers were looking in and felt sick. There were no Urinals. "What kind of a madhouse is this?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter. Look, he's already left," said Sarge11, gagging.

"Let's get out of here," said Ratchet. They walked out and shuddered. No doubt they would have nightmares about this.

_(Back on the Phoenix)_

Fortunately for Ratchet, Angela and Sasha were on opposite sides of the ship. Sasha was on the bridge and Angela was with Ratchet, who was working on his ship. Since they had last met, Angela had become quite the mechanic. They were putting in a newer, more advanced warp drive.

After it was installed, she gave him another good luck kiss and he took off for Veldin. Clank was still nowhere to be found.

_(Kyzil Plateau, Planet Veldin)_

Ratchet jumped out of his ship and was amazed and angered by what he saw. Hundreds of Tyhrranoid Mommas were swallowing all of his friends and neighbors whole. Ratchet clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. Someone was gonna pay. Off to his left he saw a Lombax with cuts, bruises, and places where fur had been torn off all over his body, crawling toward him. His eyes lit up with hope after seeing Ratchet. Before he could reach Ratchet though, one of the clones stalked up behind him and swallowed the helpless Lombax.

Ratchet stared at it and brought out his Rynocerator. In a shaky voice he said, "You just signed your death wish."

But before he could shoot, Dr. Nefarious jumped up from behind the clone and landed in front of it. He blew a whistle and four more came running to his aid. After they assembled, Nefarious teleported out. Apparently, he had set up a trap.

It was a fierce battle, and eventually, they drove him near the edge of one of the Plateau's many cliffs. He managed to finally get four of them, but, as he turned his weapon on the last one, it knocked him off. He landed on some very hard rocks and jumped. The sickening crack echoed throughout the canyon.

A mysterious stranger walked up to Ratchet who had his eyes closed. He felt for a pulse. "Dead," he muttered. He slung Ratchet over his shoulder and carried him off.

Whew! Do you know how many stupid ideas I had to go through to make this story so great? FYI: I like Angela better than Sasha, so you can probably guess who Ratchet will go with in the end. You know the policy, withhold it.

-Sarge11


	11. Chapter 11: Resurrection

Return to Crusade

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer: **Ramble ramble ramble ramble ramble. Blah blah blah blah blah.

My God! I can't believe that no one noticed or mentioned in their reviews that Ratchet is dead! Weird people. Anyway, sorry it took so long. But hey, I warned you. Chapter 11: Resurrection

jay.w.: Thanks.

Mr. D 91: I thought I explained this already.

Gamer619: Don't I always?

superdork398: Only a 9.3? That deserved a 9.7 at least.

Ratchet awoke. He felt strange; he had seen his parents again, but they were dead. As he opened and closed his eyes, he felt sick; he couldn't see. All he could see was white with big black spots. He waved his hand in front of his face but couldn't see anything. "What the-?"

"It is an after-effect of your death," said an old, scratchy voice.

"Who's there, and what are you talking about?" asked Ratchet, confused. Other than his sight, he felt fine.

Slowly, his vision cleared, and he reeled back at the sight of the unkept face of the mystic, which was only a few inches from his head.

The mystic lifted his hands and looked at Ratchet. "It is I, your good friend."

Ratchet groaned.

"I hope you have enjoyed your visit with your parents," said the mystic.

Ratchet blinked. "What?"

"You were killed in your last battle. I have kept you from dying completely and know all about your near-death-experience," explained the mystic.

Finally understanding the mystic's strange psychobabble, Ratchet thanked him and asked where he could find a ship to take him to the Phoenix.

"You will find a heavily modified ship that I found in the shed around the back," said the mystic.

"Thanks. It sounds like you have finally learned to talk with 'un-enlightened' people," Ratchet joked.

The mystic just shrugged.

They went around to the shed and, much to Ratchet's surprise, the ship was Ratchet's own Star Explorer. Ratchet turned around to thank him again but he was gone. "What the?" asked Ratchet. He knew that the mystic had followed him out; he could even see the footprints that ended right behind him, yet he was gone. There weren't even any footprints leading away from it. Ratchet scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Just when you think you know a guy."

He climbed into his ship and sped away.

_(Outside the Phoenix)_

Ratchet felt sick. Not because he had just died, but because the Phoenix was on fire. He had to blast the hanger door open and wait for the inside to stabilize. The bridge between the hanger and the bridge was destroyed, so Ratchet had to fly through the narrow hallway to the bridge. First, he shot out a shield emitter that eliminated the vacuum inside it and moved it toward the hanger entrance. Then he disembarked and rushed into the bridge with his Quantum Whip equipped. What he saw made his blood run cold. About eighty One-Eyed Robonoids had the entire crew and eight Rangers backed up in a corner. Well, all except one. He felt something warm and thick drop on his head. He looked up and saw Angela wrapped in a cocoon with small chunks of flesh missing from various parts of her body and several scrapes, gashes, and bruises all over. She appeared to be unconscious. Ratchet froze and looked at her in horror.

Sasha's cry broke Ratchet from his trance. Even though he had the power to massacre everyone of the lot with a single swipe of his Quantum Whip, he was in such a rage that he cast the whip aside and leapt onto the noids', snarling like one who has lost his mind and frothing at the mouth, and started ripping them apart just by sheer strength. This made it easier for the noids' to get away, however, and they jumped out of the fray and reproduced.

(_Author's note: When I say reproduced, I mean the robotic way. Just imagine the Protopets except as OERs instead.)_

Sasha jumped out of the corner and grabbed the Quantum Whip. She swung the whip and wiped out the attackers. Including Ratchet. Everyone looked at Ratchet with absolute horror on their faces; who had stopped snarling; but the froth was still on his lips.

_(Behind one-way glass looking into the medical bay)_

Sasha looked through the glass at the man she had once loved; and still kind of liked.

"No, this couldn't be him. He has never been so savage before. And besides, he died. I saw it myself," Sasha thought to herself.

_(In Ratchet's head)_

The mystic's face appeared in the darkness. "I trust you are doing well. I see that my powers are still very much potent."

Ratchet looked confused. "What powers? What did you do to me?"

"I have given you a very dangerous power. One that I use on those I bring back to see if they are worthy to receive life," explained the mystic.

"There he goes again. Talking in psychobabble again," muttered Ratchet.

"What you have just experienced is what I call rage. It can be used for great good, or for great evil. It is acted out when you reach the boiling point of your anger. You can summon this power by thinking of things that make you angry when you need it, or it can be summoned by accident like when you get in an argument. This immense anger causes you to loose control of yourself and grants you incredible abilities. Use it wisely and we will see if you are worthy of life," said the mystic.

The mystic disappeared and Ratchet became conscious again, though still not awake. He began to have happy dreams about Angela again, as most of us do after experiencing great trauma.

_What's he smiling for? _Sasha asked herself.

In the vents above Ratchet's bed, a red pair of normally green eyes peered down on the sleeping Lombax.

He jumped down through the vents and landed on Ratchet, waking him.

"Clank? There you are. Why are your eyes red? Why are you pointing that Pyrocitor at my head?" Ratchet asked.

Clank's finger pulled the trigger just as Ratchet through him off. Fortunately, only Ratchet's ears were burned.

"Dang it! These ears were made to be disintegrated!" Ratchet yelled.

"What the?" Sasha yelled.

She hit a red button and an alarm sounded.

Rangers came rushing in and broke through the glass, trying to help Ratchet.

An alarm woke up Angela. She reached over to turn off her alarm but fell out of the bed before she realized that the sound was coming from all around. She smacked against the floor with a thud. Pain shot through her body. She knew that she had been healed, because the screen next to her bed clearly said, _"SUBJECT AT FULLFILLED STATE OF HEALTH". _She knew that overall, she was fine; she just didn't feel that way. She opened her digital map of the Phoenix and found where the alarm button was pushed. She grabbed her Lancer and headed for the room.

Sasha jumped through the glass and brought out Ratchet's Shock Cannon even though she and Ratchet hadn't finished teaching her how to shoot it. She fired one shot and hit everything except Clank.

"Sorry!" she shouted.

As she was getting ready for another shot, Angela came jumping in and shooting away with her Lancer. Because she had received the same training from Megacorp as Ratchet, she was hitting closer to Clank than Sasha was.

"Hey! He's mine!" Sasha shouted.

"No time to argue!" Angela yelled.

Despite her inner urges to argue further, she forced herself to agree with Angela.

So together they fought, side by side.

After the fighting was over, Angela went over and kissed Ratchet, much to his surprise, right in front of Sasha.

Ratchet's eyes got big, then small, and watched helplessly as Sasha towered over Angela. Angela just turned around and towered right back. They move their hands and Ratchet flinched. He thought they were going to keep fighting. Much to his surprise though, they extended their hands and shook.

"Truce?" asked Angela.

"Truce," said Sasha.

Ratchet got up and went over to both of them. "Uh, so we're all good?"

Angela smiled mischievously and said, "For the time being."

They looked down at Clank. "We'd better have Al take a look at him," Ratchet said.

"Right," Sasha said. "We'll wait until after he's fixed until we discuss our next move.

Five pages. Wow. That's a personal record. Anyway, the review policy has been repealed. I don't know, I just felt like it. Once again, I'm sorry this took so long. You know how eighth grade is. I had three essays due this week. Anyway, R&R.

**-Sarge11**


	12. Chapter 12: Plan of Attack

Return to Crusade

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer:** Who cares?

Sorry it took so long. Eighth grade is only part of the problem. One of the reasons could possibly be the fact that Ratchet: Deadlocked is a very distracting game. Ha ha! That's right, I've got Ratchet: Deadlocked. You can take that strait to the bank you suckahs!

Mr. D 91: Well, my friend, I guess you're gonna be a little disappointed. This chapter though, I went into a little more detail. No it's not Klunk (I mean the character, you spelled it right). I didn't have him ask because I didn't feel there was a need to. It's not lame.

Some Random Fanboy: Probably not. He's in his twentys, he's not gonna grow.

Gamer619: Well, I can say one thing, you will not be disappointed. Finally! Someone I can relate to!

jay.w: Here's what you asked for.

superdork398: Well, normally I don't like to contradict my readers but... Ratchet did not die twice. He only died once. You mean the last chapter got a ten? Cool.

Chapter 12: Plan of Attack

"O.K. Now that the problem is corrected, we can play back the video of what happened, and download Dr. Nefarious' entire plan. I get the feeling he's only told us part of it," said Al.

Ratchet looked worriedly at Clank. Since Clank was an old model, he required an outdated, nonexistent USB connection for downloading. Clank was a fairly frail robot, so if new technology was suddenly introduced to Clank, even something as simple as a cord, it could shut him down permanently.

Angela put a reassuring hand on Ratchet's shoulder and smiled.

Ratchet smiled back and nodded at Al. He plugged in the cord and they watched the fight in the ducts. They were staring, impressed with Clank's fighting ability, when the screen went black. It reappeared, except now the screen looked like the way a Terminator saw. Then Clank was completely overwhelmed, and the screen was covered with static.

"Hmm," Al mumbled. "Apparently, Clank's core CPU was changed while inside the Robonoid. Interesting."

"Hold on. How many Rangers were on this ship when I left?" Ratchet asked.

"About two hundred-fifty" answered Sasha.

"And how many were left after the attack?" Ratchet asked.

"Eight," Sasha responded.

Ratchet gulped. "Where did you put those Rangers?"

"In the repair bay. Why?" asked Sasha.

"Oh sh-" Ratchet was interrupted when the door to the repair bay was blown open and Rangers came rushing in, their normally yellow heads were red. Al ran screaming for cover, Qwark curled into a fetal position and Skrunch grabbed a gun, Skidd was laying down on a table sleeping, Helga climbed to a high position so she could squash them and "turn them into pretzels", Sasha brought a Shock Cannon to bear, Angela took her gun out of her equipment belt and armed her other various weapons, and Ratchet took out his Omniwrench.

Helga jumped down on top of them and crushed them into tiny bits and pieces, then picked up Skidd and threw him at the Rangers.

Sasha tossed Ratchet a Quantum Whip, and he put his wrench away for the moment, and started wiping out the Rangers just as they got up.

Qwark sat there sucking on his thumb.

Skrunch was jumping from Ranger to Ranger shooting in each one's head.

Skidd was still asleep.

Angela was moving much like Ratchet does, executing several aerial flips and firing, throwing bombs laying down those turrets.

Suddenly, Sasha had an idea and she told Al to regroup with her. She and Al moved towards Clank and, while she laid down covering fire (Which isn't all that hard to do with a gun like that), while Al worked on getting Clank back online. Just as her ammo count reached one, Al got Clank back online.

Clank didn't even have to be told what to do. He just started fighting, and rather well.

Eventually, it the flood of Rangers coming through the door slowed to a trickle, and finally, they stopped coming.

"Ha ha ha!" Helga laughed. "They went down like wee little girly men! Ha ha ha!"

"O.K. Arnold, now we need to check out the plans provided by Clank," said Al

"Forget that," Ratchet said. "We didn't know his plans before, but we stopped him then. I say, we just find Nefarious and do what needs to be done."

"Fine. But this time, we're gonna do it stealthily. No big guns," said Al.

"Sounds good to me. Let's find out where he is," said Ratchet. "For the time being, I'm gonna go down to Veldin to see if anyone survived the attack."

_(On the surface of Veldin)_

Ratchet clenched his fist and his teeth. All he could see for miles around was destruction, death, and robots.

Angela came up behind Ratchet and gave him a hug. She leaned down next to Ratchet and, knowing what just about all men desire most, whispered in his ear. "Hey, look at the bright side. When this is all over, we can have all the time and all the reason we need to "repopulate the species".

Though Ratchet was slightly cheered by the offer, and was greatly looking forward to it, he could not get the overall feeling of dread and sadness out of his head. "He made a mistake in coming here and killing everyone like this Angela. Now he's gonna pay for it."

_(Back up on the Phoenix)_

Sasha greeted Ratchet with a hug (girls can do that). "I'm so sorry."

"Where is he? I'll tear him apart. This time, I'll make sure he doesn't come back," Ratchet said darkly.

Sasha stuttered. "Uh, we we've located him on planet Florana. And you also might want to go in and see Skidd; we've been pushing him, jumping on him, even shocking him, but we haven't been able to wake him yet."

Just then, an alarm clock sounded, and Skidd emerged from his room yawning and stretching. He saw Ratchet and waved. "Yo, little dude, we're like under attack and stuff you know."

"The attack is over Skidd," Sasha explained.

"Oh," Skidd said and walked back into his room. Soon after, the sound of snoring came from his room.

"I'll never understand him," said Sasha.

"Get my ship ready," said Ratchet. "I'm gonna make him pay for this."

Not as long as I expected it to be but it's still a pretty good chapter. Anyway, I was thinking of taking another poll. It pertains to after the story is done. The first object that I require to be voted on is yet another sequel. The theme this time around will be more personal this time around and Crusade will not be involved. However, everything Ratchet has gained in this story (rage, Angela he he he, Sarge11 will still be there) will reappear. On the other hand, I could quit with this series for a while and work on a documentary for it instead. Either way, they're gonna be great stories.

-Sarge11


	13. Chapter 13: Training

Return to Crusade

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer: **I'm too busy.

jay.w.: Well, I can't really do both. My sequal won't include Crusade. I 'm just looking to see what the readers want.

Mr. D 91: I'll be looking forward to your vote.

Some Random Fanboy: To tell you the truth, I pretty much only have the first chapter planned out.

superdork398: Well, you know how I am. I live to break your booyah meter. 

Chapter 13: Training

On his way to Florana, Ratchet realized that he couldn't go one-hundred-percent stealth. He just never learned how. And since the mission required him to be stealthy, he needed to learn, and fast. He knew that Skidd certainly couldn't help, but he knew who could.

Ratchet's fighter descended through the clouds in Tyhrranosis' atmosphere and headed for the landing pad. There, he was greeted by Tomas, and another albino Tyhrranoid named Radim, who was similar to Tomas except he rolled his R's. They shook Ratchet's hand and asked him what he was doing on Tyhrranosis.

"I have orders to eliminate Dr. Nefarious. Unfortunately, his new base is too well defended for a head on assault. I need you to train me in the art of stealth," Ratchet explained.

Tomas grinned and said, "Well, my friend, you have come to the right place." He snapped and Radim came forward. "Radim, teach him what he needs."

"Yes, sir," he replied.

"So where are you going to train me?" asked Ratchet.

"We have a base on Crusade," he answered simply.

_(On Crusade)_

"What kind of weapons do you have?" asked Radim. Ratchet showed him his arsenal and he shook his head. "These weapons will have to go." He handed Ratchet a laser staff and said, "This will be your weapon from now on."

Ratchet just looked at it and back at Radim with big, pleading eyes.

Radim sighed and said, "All right, you can keep the Quantum Whip."

A satisfied Ratchet took back his favorite melee weapon.

"Now, show me your armor inventory." Ratchet turned on his Helpdesk watch and a holographic display of all the armor he had ever owned appeared. "Hmm." Radim touched the display of Ratchet's Carbonox armor and the holoprojector zoomed in on the suit. "This is the armor you will be wearing."

"Clank, bring the ship up here. I need the armor that I keep stored in there," Ratchet said into his wrist.

He made a lot of noise coming back because of his suit.

Radim slapped his…forehead? "There are many modifications we need to make to the suit, obviously."

Suddenly, Ratchet had an idea. "I know just where we can find it."

(Traveling across the landscape of Crusade)

They came in sight of a crashed Ranger Dropship.

"I hope he's still there," Ratchet whispered.

Ratchet disembarked from the Tyhrranoid speeder and climbed up to the hatch of the Dropship. He knocked on the hatch and waited. Finally, a slit opened up and two familiar eyes appeared.

"Well, well, well," said Slim Cognito. "What could you be visiting me out here for?"

"Cut the chat, Slim. I'm on a tight schedule. Show me what you've got in the stealth and sound muffler equipment," said Ratchet.

"I've got just the things you're looking for. The first is a pair of boots made of mutant Protopet hair… don't ask," he said.

"How much?" asked Ratchet.

"75 bolts," he simply said.

"I'll take it," Ratchet said.

"Thank you. Now, something you're really gonna' like, a personal gravity field. It keeps your armor from scraping against the ground when you crawl," said Slim.

"I'm interested. How much?" asked Ratchet.

"15,000 bolts," he said in pure business fashion.

"I'll take it," Ratchet said. "What else do you have?"

"It's called a Chameleon cloaking device. It makes you completely invisible. It's the first of its kind," bragged Slim.

"Oh, yeah. I'll definitely take that," said Ratchet excitedly.

"Hey, I didn't give you the price yet. I'm not too sure you can afford it," said Slim.

"Hit me," said Ratchet.

"1,500,000 bolts," said Slim.

"It's not too bad," said Ratchet. "I'll take it."

"How do you get all that money?" asked Slim.

"Trade secret," Ratchet smiled smugly.

"Thank you for your **contribution**," said Slim.

_(Back at the base)_

Now with all his equipment ready, Radim began the next phase of training: how to go through the movements.

"All you need to know is how to put your foot down," said Radim. "Basically, just put your toes or heel down first and slowly roll the rest of your foot down. Good. Also, when you are following someone, match their steps. When you are close to your target, walk on the sides of your feet."

"So, what now? I just go and attack?" asked Ratchet.

"No. You are lacking the proper equipment. Come," said Radim. "I have one more thing to give you." Radim handed Ratchet things that looked like sleeves that had hooks on them. "Wear these, and you can climb anything."

Ratchet put them on and thanked Radim for all he had done. Then he called his ship to him and shot up through the sky towards Florana.

Sorry this took so long. I guess I just lost my inspiration for a while.Well, that and a small, uh, ahem, "personal" matter. The story will end in one or two chapters.

**-Sarge11**


	14. Chapter 14a: Home

Return to Crusade

By Sarge11

**Disclaimer: **





**Hey, Mr. D 91, I thought you said you would review to the end. I don't see how you could find the time to review The Ranger's Hymn, just today, but still can't review my major story. Ah well. I guess maybe you just didn't know, or maybe the review is even on its way right now. Whatever.**

**Superdork398: I'm sorry to here about your grandfather. I do not even have to have met him to know that he was a great man. His service during the war was enough proof for me. It's exploded again! You really need to upgrade your BM. Well, I'm somewhat sorry that you want it to go on forever, seeing as this is the last chapter. But never fear! I've already got the first chapter to the next story outlined. Hang in there man!**

**Tankbain: Thanks!**

**Mr. D 91: Though you did not review for the last chapter, I will answer to the songfic of mine you reviewed. I don't exactly understand what you were talking about when I changed everything but, _ROCK ON!_**

**jay.w.: Yeah I like it too. Well, the answer why I can't do both is because I work based on two factors. What I'm in the mood for, and two, what the readers want. The biggest factor is what the readers want, which merely controls what I write. The mood I myself am in, determines how high the quality is. Like when I wrote chapter 8, my day had generally been crap. However, when I wrote chapter seven, I had just eaten a nice meal, the weekend was starting, my grades were good, and we didn't have any homework or projects. So you can see how they would conflict.**

**Gamer619: Thanks.**

**Hylic Soul: I agree.**

**Chaos Wielder: Yeah. If you liked that, then you'll really like chapter six.**

Chapter 14: Home 

Ratchet jumped from his starfighter and descended down towards the trees. Before he reached tree level, he righted himself and pulled on his sharp cuffs. He angled himself toward one of the great tree's trunks and reached out, the sharp end on his cuffs grabbed onto the bark, and hesliddown about two yards before he stopped. Then, he instantly started climbing the trunk, ignoring the great physical stress a stunt like that caused. He knew there were sure to be guards patrolling the treetops, so he pulled out his laser staff, but did not activate it. He heard a guard coming and activated his personal gravity field generator and went prone. He waited until the guard passed and started creeping up behind him, and put him in a chokehold. He then placed the inactivated butt of the staff up to its head and activated the beam, effectively drilling a three-inch hole in the noid's head. He immediately shut the beam off, dragged the body over to the edge, and dumped it into the murky water below where the sharkagators lurked, making a bit more noise than he would have liked. The next guard in line heard the commotion and rushed into the room; only to find it empty. As he was looking around, Ratchet, who was hiding on a branch, silently shot an oil slick from his wristin front of where the guard was standing to the edge of the platform, and slipped out his grav-field generator underneath the guard. The device slipped underneath the guard who, not used to the change in gravity, lifted into the air and started kicking and flailing. Ratchet turned off the field and the guard fell back to the ground and landed on the oil, and shot off the edge, too terrified to scream,and the Tyhrranoid splashed noiselessly below.

Ratchet picked up the generator and put it back in the mod slot of his suit. He put on his Protopet fur boots over his noisy armored boots, and put the cloaking device in the other mod slot in his suit and activated it. He became invisible.

He made his way toward the ventilation shaft entrance.

_Why do Tyhrranoids always put the vent entrance so low? _Ratchet asked himself.

He took the vent cover off after disabling the security terminal next to it, and deactivated his cloaking device since he didn't need it anymore. He climbed into the vent and found his path blocked by security walls; laser barriers reinforced by Adamantium walls. Simple. Ratchet estimated that a single EMP grenade would disable the barrier long enough for him to cut through the walls. He covered the vent again and tossed the EMP. The grenade exploded and took out the barrier; he activated his staff, turning off one side so he could increase the length of the other side and he started carving. He pulled through just as the laser barrier came back online. However, as soon as he looked forward again, he found his face just a millimeter away from the next barrier. He jumped back and hit his head on the wall and singed his tail on the barrier behind him, the beam cutting through his armor; Ratchet struggled to stifle a yelp of pain. He leaned forward and cocked his head as his suit's HUD automatically assessed the situation and processed information regarding the walls. Ratchet came to the conclusion that Ratchet had to go through at least ten more barriers until reaching Nefarious' private chamber. Ratchet silently cursed himself for not being prepared,because he only had one EMP left. His "payload" consisted of one full magazine for his whip, oil for the oil slick, a power source for the grav field, cloaking device, and laser staff, and two EMPs. He decided to save the EMP for dropping into the final vent where Nefarious was.

Ratchetthought that he could disable the fields with the runoff of his whip; and it wouldn't even cost him ammo. He could just equip it and hold it over the edges of the barrier.

He proceeded through the rest of the vent this way and finally reached the hatch that led to Dr. Nefarious' private chamber and threw the EMP through the vent. He slid down on a rope immediately after the boom, and found three Lombaxes, obviously survivors of Dr. Nefarious' attack on Veldin. They were lined up on a wall with blindfolds on. Standing about two yards away from them, with guns still pointed at them, but shut down, were three Commander Bots. Ratchet pushed the bots down and released the prisoners, who climbed up the rope. For the first time, Ratchet looked around Nefarious' "room". It was more like a battle arena. As Ratchet was looking around the room, he didn't notice the platform opening in the floor, but his environmental sensors indicated that something had jumped through the floor.

Instead of turning around to see who it was, he used his neural connection with his suit to activate the camera in the back of his suit and saw Dr. Nefarious approaching stealthily. He just kept watching him as he stepped forward, waiting for the expected move to come. When it finally did, Ratchet was more than ready. Nefarious reached around Ratchet's neck in an attempt to grab it, but was flipped forward as Ratchet grabbed his arm and pulled him over his shoulder. Ratchet instantly crouched down as Nefarious sprang up and faced Ratchet again. Ratchet started twirling his staff around over his head, and moved his arm back in the ready position.

Nefarious smiled and said, "The Steel Kitten wishes to fight. Good; this will make things interesting."

Ratchet did not hesitate and rushed at the mad Doctor. He felt something growing inside him, something primal, making him stronger… rage. He could feel it consuming him, controlling his actions, making him reckless but strong. He could feel it clouding his mind over what Nefarious had done, on Veldin and beyond, what he was about to do with those Lombax prisoners. He felt his anger burning and burning until things started to drop into slow motion. His vision became clearer and, with the slow motion helping him and increasing his reflex time, he could move faster than he ever had before. He could feel his anger, and then he remembered the attack on the Phoenix, how Sasha and Angela had almost died, and he roared the roar of the lion and he charged even faster and more ferociously.

Dr. Nefarious winced at this but ran at Ratchet anyway; and got one of his fins cut off.

Ratchet kept on running and, merely by his speed, started running up the wall and flipped up onto the ceiling running upside down. He thought of Drek, and his velocity increased. He had so much energy built up that when he stopped on the ceiling over Nefarious he stood still for an instant, just standing upside down, before he dropped down, his staff spinning like a P-51's propeller, and started chipping away at small parts of Dr. Nefarious. After he landed, Ratchet dropped down on his head and started spinning around in a dance move he had learned on Metropolis while looking for Drek's second-in-command, and extended his legs in a kicking move that sent Nefarious flying to the other side of the room. Ratchet assumed the ready position again.

Nefarious got up and dusted himself off, and actually looked a little scared. As usual, he teleported out, but did not notice that Ratchet had slapped a tracking device on his remaining fin.

Ratchet hacked and slashed his way through Nefarious' base towards the docking bay faster than he drove a Turboslider, the benefit of his cloaking device too damaged for a quick repair.

He reached the hangar just as Dr. Nefarious took off in his private shuttle. _No matter, _Ratchet thought emotionlessly. He activated his ship's transponder signal. The ship blasted through the roof just as more guards entered the bay, but the ship made short work of them. Ratchet hopped in his fighter and shot off after the scientist.


	15. Chapter 14b: Home

He easily caught up with the shuttle, and attached a flak charge onto his nuke so he could make it explode early. He launched the nuke and watched asit headed straight for the shuttle, but was diverted at the last second by a tractor beam on the shuttle. The beam turned the warhead around, and Ratchet had to take evasive action just to avoid the missile, and even then, he did not fully escape the blast. He turned back on Nefarious' tale and quickly caught up with him.

He flew up to where he could see the scientist, turned inverted so he could see Nefarious, flipped him off and turned over again, combined all his weapons into one pod on the bottom of his ship, deactivated the thrust on the pod with all the weapons, and simply dropped it on the shuttle.

Ratchet veered away and looked back as the shuttle exploded into a brilliant fireball.

_It's over, _Ratchet thought. He activated his ship's "camera whatchamacallit", briefed Sasha on his situation, and said he was out of fuel. All of a sudden, he felt tired and fell asleep. His rage had drained him. He fell unconscious to the sound of Sasha screaming his name.

Ratchet woke up in the med bay of the Phoenix. He saw Angela and Sasha sitting next to him. Their eyes made contact, and Ratchet and Angela reached an understanding.

"I'm tired," Ratchet said.

"I know," Sasha said solemnly. "Get some rest."

Ratchet shook his head and replied, "No. I'm tired of fighting, tired of, killing, tired of war. I am empty now." They were silently contemplating his answer as Ratchet continued. "I thought maybe I could settle down on Veldin and learn how to feel pain, sorrow, and joy again. I hereby resign my position as Sergeant."

Sarge11 came barging in. "Hey! You can't just quit like that!" He picked Ratchet up by the shoulders and shook him. "Who's gonna fight alongside me when all my Rangers run away? I need someone to stay with me!"

"Maybe you can find some other hero to fight alongside you. I'm just, sick of it." Ratchet sighed and got out of bed. "I guess I'd better pack my stuff." Ratchet pushed past a stunned Sasha and went to the living quarters to gather his stuff.

As Ratchet turned to leave, he saw Sasha blocking his path with tears in her eyes.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye then." Sasha could barely keep from crying.

Ratchet walked up to her, put her hands in his, and hugged her tight. "It's O.K., we can still talk." He gave Sasha one last goodbye squeeze and met Angela and Clank by his ship. He nodded toward them both and they hopped in and blasted off to Veldin.

And just like that, it was over… or so they thought. Ratchet and Angela were married the day after they reached Veldin, and they and their children, against Ratchet's wishes, had many more adventures together, but that is for another story.

Yeeeeeeeeehaaaawww! I gotta tell you, I wasn't really expecting it to end like that when I started this chapter. Now, after reading something this great, I just know you have to review.

**-Sarge11**


End file.
